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All 14.0 - The Intervening Years
Not long after the arrest of Dr. Cohen, Lucca, Caitlyn and Victor all retired from CSIS. Here are the summaries of what generally occurred over the following seven years. Victor and Lucca Beastfolk Diplomats After the capture of Cohen, and more particularly the enormous windfall that came from it, Victor opted to retire from more strenuous CSIS jobs so that he wouldn’t have to risk his life or spend a long time away from Virgil. Since money was of little concern to him, work was more for interest than for financial gain, and raising his son was generally more than enough to keep him interested. Lucca, for his part, continued doing what he was doing: whatever struck his fancy. By the late spring of that year, Pierce approached Victor with a rather unique job offer. He had been tasked with sending some employees to the peninsula. The Asonian colony, Lockeport, had been having significant trouble with the local tribe of gnolls who had been raiding their farms and settlement, and generally making life both difficult and dangerous. Diplomats had been sent, but the tribe had responded poorly to anyone who couldn’t pass their trials; strong-arms had also been sent, but it had done nothing but make the tension worse between the two groups. Someone was needed who could broker between the two sides, who had the strength and skills to pass the gnoll’s initiation rights and win their trust, but also possessed the political and diplomatic abilities needed to forge an alliance between the two groups. Pierce had his eye on Victor. After some deliberation, Victor agreed to the position, on the grounds that Lucca be sent as well. The pair set off to the sub-tropical plains and jungles of the peninsula. Lockeport greeted them well enough, though it was obvious that the locals had little faith that any peace could be had between themselves and the gnolls. Regardless, the two headed out into the wilds to meet the tribe and see what could be done. The gnolls of the Doamanyoya Tribe met them with scorn; there was no suspicion or fear, for there had been no recent shortage of agenda-laden humans come to shame themselves. It was expected that, should they wish to speak on equal terms, they would complete the rite of passage that any child would need to conduct to be treated as an adult. It also wasn’t enough to merely be a villager; they would need to be warrior-hunters, if they were expecting to be treated as messengers from another tribe that warranted attention. Victor and Lucca were bold: there was nothing that a young gnoll could do that they couldn’t. It was a simple, yet grueling, task before them: they would need to go out into the savannah for a day and a night without provisions or gear and wait. When the sun rose and they were driven by hunger, they would hunt. What they brought back would mark their worth as hunters: how large, how quickly and how well it was killed. The huntmasters would watch them and judge them as they hunted; they were allowed to work together, as the gnolls did, and they were scoffingly allowed to bring a weapon if it suited them, since the dogfolk’s opinion of human’s natural abilities were low at best. Both men refused: they would be just as successful as any gnoll, without handicaps. The next morning they set out at dawn, naked, into the savannah. As they fasted, they stayed together, waiting under a tree. Time wore on, the hunger wore down Lucca’s good humour, and by nightfall Lucca had stormed off. The task had become a competition. When dawn broke, the two set out upon their task of tracking and killing a suitable animal. Lucca armed himself with a large rock, while Victor found a sturdy fallen branch. The druid, for his part, stormed across the savannah, his frustration at needing to prove himself at a task he had done for years sharpened considerably by his hunger. It took him nearly a day and a half of searching, following tell-tale signs of a large, solitary animal, before he accidentally stumbled into the pit-trap of an ankheg. Furiously, the druid smashed in the enormous bug’s head, killing it before it could manage to rend him apart. The gnoll who had been watching him came forward to help carry back his offering, and Lucca, tired, starving, sweaty, injured and sunburnt, returned triumphantly to the tribe. When he returned, he found Victor sitting smugly amongst the tribesmen. Not only had he managed to separate a stegosaurus from its herd and kill it by jamming a stick through its neck, but he had returned almost 15 hours earlier, without a sunburn. Something snapped in the druid’s head, and he ran at Victor in a rage, who repelled him easily by hitting him repeatedly on his burn. The gnolls found this both humorous and relatable: the two men had proven themselves to be skilled, and were accepted into the tribe. Victor spent the intervening years acting as a liaison between Lockeport and the established peoples of the Peninsula. He focused most of his time and effort with the Doamanyoya Tribe due to their close location, but he also dealt with Kiota, some of the more remote gnoll tribes and the roaming Aelurian families who would wander in and around the area. His reasonable, unflinching and potentially fierce demeanour rather endeared him to the beastfolk, making them much more amicable to the colony as a whole, and this combined with his polished appearance and manner made him greatly appreciated by the administration of Lockeport. Lucca, though he held the same title of diplomat as Victor, rarely performed the same jobs. Rather than act as a mediator between Lockeport’s and the beastkinds’ interests, he mostly occupied himself with learning and understanding the cultures of the natives. He worked hard in Lockeport advocating for sustainable and environmentally ethical infrastructure and agricultural practices, helping to shape the young city’s direction towards a path balanced between nature and progress. In addition, he travelled frequently out into the wilderness to explore and learn, not only in the Peninsula, but also into the Northlands, sometimes leaving for days or weeks at a time. Family Life The most important thing in Victor’s life continued to be Virgil: the young child went with him wherever he went, and he rather detested the thought of leaving him with a nanny for any length of time. To this end, he never kept an office or anything of the sort, and did any work that he was able to at home, using a sitter only when necessary. Victor kept two houses: his townhouse in Arlington, and a home in Lockeport, and he and Virgil moved between the two very frequently, as the Lightning Transit took away any sort of real hassle. In addition, they also spent a significant amount of time living among the Doamanyoya. When Virgil began school, they began a more strict pattern of living in Arlington in the winter and Lockport during the summer, with Victor making day-trips for work so as to not interfere with his son’s education but also to ensure that he was always around. Lucca continued to live with Victor and Virgil in a sporadic fashion; he came and went from their home regularly, sometimes staying for a few days before wandering out, sometimes staying for weeks, and never being gone for too long. The druid was a regular presence throughout Virgil’s young years. The three went on regular excursions outside of their work: visiting Lucca’s grandmother in Tsimshian, camping with Cheko, and other trips besides. Caitlyn and Ryuji Wedding Caitlyn and Ryuji’s relationship was nothing if not stronger after the events that had unfolded in the last few weeks of Caitlyn’s employment with CSIS. They continued to court seriously for about half a year before Ryuji proposed to her. With a mix of bashfulness and coyness, she turned him down, saying it was too soon to be so serious, but not to stop trying. It took nearly 6 months more before she suggested playfully that maybe he should try proposing again, and to make sure to put just as much effort into it as the first time. They had a rather lavish wedding in Yeto, courtesy of the Komatsu family. Anyone who was anyone was invited, and it included Victor, Lucca and Cheko, who wore a disguise. An Unplanned Family Around the time of the wedding, Caitlyn had been feeling rather unwell, experiencing waves of nausea, headache and fatigue. She shrugged it off for the longest time, despite Ryuji’s insistence otherwise, until eventually she spoke to a doctor who made the rather unbelievable diagnosis of pregnancy. Neither of the soon-to-be parents had thought that Ryuji could possibly be capable of fathering children, so they hadn’t been as rigorous with protection as they might have been. Despite evidence and a second, third and fourth opinion, it took Caitlyn well until she began to show to really believe that she was carrying a child. Ryuji, almost conversely, took the news as truth; however, he never really thought that the child was his. There were several arguments to that effect, with Ryuji taking offense at what he saw as Caitlyn lying to him about her fidelity. He never questioned their love or commitment, and was excited for fatherhood regardless of the child’s parentage, but he tried more than once to make his wife admit to her ‘kind of ridiculous lie’. It wasn’t until the child was born, completely healthy despite his core temperature being well below normal, that Ryuji apologized profusely for his mistake. They named the baby Shintaro. Busy Lives Caitlyn, after her ordeal with Cohen, used the government’s gratitude to gain a job as a dignitary of Asanon, going to meetings, parties and events, representing the country to Yeto. Her job required a lot of travel, which was made simple with the amount of teleportation magic at her disposal, but wasn’t stressful and was only part-time work at best. She spent the rest of her time studying, finishing her degree and dabbling in the archeology department, as well as travelling and spending time with her husband. When Shintaro was born, she took a maternity leave for the first year before going back to work, though she remained an attentive and close mother. Ryuji went back to work finally, after his weeks of absence, eventually gaining enough experience to pass the bar exam and become a full lawyer in Asanon. With that complete and with his expertise proven from the Lightning Transit deal, his family put him to work as a trade broker between themselves and Asonian businesses. Like his wife, his job required a lot of travel that was made strictly easier by magic, but it also required significantly more paperwork. No longer needing food or sleep came as a benefit in this case, freeing up a lot of time to get everything done and still spend time with Caitlyn and later, Shintaro. The pair came to own a large estate in Yeto, again courtesy of Ryuji’s family, as well as a very nice apartment in Kalleandar for when they had late or long-running engagements in Asanon. Ryuji particularly disliked being away from his wife and child for any length of time, and so despite business travel and owning two homes, it wasn’t very often that they weren’t together at the end of the day. The staff on the estate were each hand-picked for their trustworthiness and open-mindedness; between Ryuji and his son’s conditions, and Carrot and her inventions, a certain caliber of help was required. Cheko Cheko continued about her life as a farscout for her village. She was gifted with the yellow LT gem that Annashil had scavenged from her MoveBot, which allowed Cheko to visit the human cities at her leisure. Donning disguises, she had great trips wandering around and seeing sights. Cheko often visited Lucca in Arlington, enjoying discussing their similar interests in nature and exploration. She also visited Victor, Caitlyn and Ryuji, but almost more to see their children as them. She became known as “Auntie Cheko”, and both of the kids loved her. The farscout also made it her mission to meet and regularly talk to the other tribes, since her tribe had never had a way to easily reach the surface before, and so communication had always been scarce at best. She invited Lucca, and by extension Victor and Virgil, to come with her on the trips to the boreal forests of the west, the tundra and the desert where the other tribes lived, and though the humans were never allowed near the villages, they did meet a few adventurous souls from each tribe who would come out and speak with them. Cress With his obnoxious disposition and frightening mother, Cress had never particularly had any friends. In Lucca, he had found someone who both complimented his personality and wasn’t intimidated by his crime lord mother, and so began to frequently show up at Victor’s house, calling on the druid. The two became relatively chummy, and hung out whenever Lucca happened to be in the area. Due to his habit of showing up unexpectedly, Cress arrived more than once while the pair were sparring. Cress’ own sub-par fighting skills were called into question and quickly shamed; a mention of training from Victor was heartily jumped upon, and the young elf took to the lessons with enthusiasm, eventually becoming a decent fighter. As the years passed, Cress didn’t particularly veer from his course. He intended to take over for his mother someday, and little else was worth his effort. Though his overall competence increased with age, his short-sightedness, indiscretion and foul mouth saw no particular improvement. Pierce Pierce was disappointed that Caitlyn cancelled her contract with CSIS after the Cohen incident, but did not begrudge her her retirement. Lucca and Victor maintained theirs, however, on the grounds that they not be bothered with anything less than vitally important. Pierce agreed to this, and over the intervening years asked for very little, and what was asked was generally a minor feat for the pair of them. Due to their positions as diplomats and dignitaries, Victor, Lucca, Caitlyn and Ryuji saw a fair bit of Pierce at parties and events, which he attended as a man of wealth and press access. Victor in particular struck up something of a friendship with the man, and the two met semi-regularly over the years for drinks, finding each other to be interesting conversation and, for Victor, a refreshing change of pace from children and tribal folk. The Creator Annashil, or Carrot, the Creator of Constructs, went to live with Caitlyn after she was rescued from the Underdark. It wasn’t long before Caitlyn finally moved out of her student apartment, and the little orange kobold went with her, much to the relief of her former housemates. She was eventually set up in her own garage on her and Ryuji’s estate, where she happily makes clocks and robots and all manner of strange mechanical inventions beyond current engineering understanding. Anna had full run of the house and was often seen running about, tinkering with things in corners and under furniture. Category:Advent of the All